Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, the state's most populous city, and the county seat of Fulton County, Georgia. The population of the city is 420,003. During the 1950s and 1960s, Atlanta became a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and many other locals playing major roles in the movement's leadership. During the modern era, Atlanta has attained international prominence as a major air transportation hub, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998. Atlanta is rated as a "beta(+)" world city that exerts a moderate impact on global commerce, finance, research, technology, education, media, art, and entertainment. It ranks in the top twenty among world cities and 10th in the nation with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $385 billion. Atlanta's economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include transportation, logistics, professional and business services, media operations, medical services, and information technology. Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage, earning it the nickname of "the city in a forest." Revitalization of Atlanta's neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Summer Olympics, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the city's demographics, politics, aesthetics, and culture. Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is: 52.43% Black or African American (220,207) 37.11% White (155,863) 5.02% Hispanic or Latino (21,084) 3.60% Asian (15,120) 1.84% Other (7,729) 22.8% (95,760) of Atlanta residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Atlanta's theft and murder rates have consistently been among the highest in the United States, and as of 2018, it is the 7th-most dangerous city for Pokemon in the United States. In years past, however, particularly between the late 1960s and the 1990s before the Olympics, Atlanta used to be a city that many trainers feared having to go to, as it consistently was top 3 in Pokemon theft and murder, in addition to having ridiculous rates of violent crime in general. And also, many Pokemon, even those that are fully-evolved, were a bit scared of Atlanta as well. It was much like Houston in a way that if you were a Pokemon, it was survival of the fittest. These days are gone for now, but Atlanta still isn't that safe of a city for Pokemon, especially south of downtown, and Team Rocket also has their U.S. branch's headquarters in Atlanta as well. The city reported 1,955 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 62.41 murders a year. Pokemon See the Fulton County page for more info. Fun facts * In 1960, whites comprised 61.7% of the city's population. During the 1950s–70s, white flight from urban areas led to a significant demographic shift. By 1970, African Americans were a majority of the city's population and exercised new-found political influence by electing Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973. Under Mayor Jackson's tenure, Atlanta's airport was modernized, solidifying the city's role as a transportation center. The opening of the Georgia World Congress Center in 1976 heralded Atlanta's rise as a convention city. Construction of the city's subway system began in 1975, with rail service commencing in 1979. Despite these improvements, Atlanta lost over 100,000 residents between 1970 and 1990, over 20% of its population. * With a GDP of $385 billion, the Atlanta metropolitan area's economy is the tenth-largest in the country and among the top 20-largest in the world. Corporate operations play a major role in Atlanta's economy, as the city claims the nation's third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. It also hosts the global headquarters of corporations like The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, AT&T Mobility, Chick-fil-A, and UPS. Over 75% of Fortune 1000 companies conduct business operations in the city's metro area, and the region hosts offices of over 1,250 multinational corporations. Many corporations are drawn to the city by its educated workforce; as of 2014, 45% of adults aged 25 or older residing in the city have at least 4-year college degrees, compared to the national average of 28%. * Atlanta started as a railroad town, and logistics has been a major component of the city's economy to this day. Atlanta serves as an important rail junction and contains major classification yards for Norfolk Southern and CSX. Since its construction in the 1950s, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport has served as a key engine of the city's economic growth. Delta Air Lines, the city's largest employer and the metro area's third-largest, operates the world's largest airline hub at Hartsfield-Jackson, and it has helped make it the world's busiest airport, in terms of both passenger traffic and aircraft operations. Partly due to the airport, Atlanta has been also a hub for diplomatic missions; as of 2017, the city contains 26 consulate generals, the seventh-highest concentration of diplomatic missions in the US. * Media is also an important aspect of Atlanta's economy. In fact, the city is even a major cable television programming center. Ted Turner established the headquarters of both the Cable News Network (CNN) and the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in the city. Cox Enterprises, the nation's third-largest cable television service and the publisher of over a dozen American newspapers, is headquartered in the city. The Weather Channel is headquartered just outside of Atlanta in suburban Cobb County. * Recently, Atlanta has been a center for film and television production, largely because of the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, which awards qualified productions a transferable income tax credit of 20% of all in-state costs for film and television investments of $500,000 or more. Film and television production facilities based in Atlanta include Turner Studios, Pinewood Studios (Pinewood Atlanta), Tyler Perry Studios, Williams Street Productions, and the EUE/Screen Gems soundstages. Film and television production injected $9.5 billion into Georgia's economy in 2017, with Atlanta garnering most of the projects. As a result, by the following year, Atlanta emerged as one of the all-time most popular destinations for film production globally. * Atlanta has played a major or contributing role in the development of various genres of American music at different points in the city's history. * Due to the more than 20 colleges and universities in the city, Atlanta is considered one of the nation's largest hubs for higher education. ** The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the most prominent public universities in the nation; it is a major research university in Midtown that consistently ranks among the nation's top ten public universities. It offers highly ranked degree programs in engineering, design, business administration, the sciences, and architecture. ** Georgia State University is a major public research university in Downtown Atlanta; it is the largest of the 29 public colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia and is a significant contributor to the revitalization of the city's central business district. ** Atlanta is home to nationally renowned private colleges and universities, most notably Emory University, a leading liberal arts and research institution that consistently ranks among the top 25 universities in the United States and operates Emory Healthcare, the largest health care system in Georgia. ** The Atlanta University Center is also in the city; it is the largest contiguous consortium of historically black colleges in the nation, comprising Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Morehouse School of Medicine. Atlanta contains a campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design, a private art and design university that has proven to be a major factor in the recent growth of Atlanta's visual art community. Atlanta and nearby Athens also boast American Bar Association accredited law schools: Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, Emory University School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law and University of Georgia School of Law. * Local TV stations in Atlanta include WSB-TV 2 (ABC), WAGA-TV 5 (FOX), WXIA-TV 11 (NBC), WPXA-TV 14 (Ion), WPCH-TV 17 (Peachtree TV), WANN-CD 32, WUVG-DT 34 (Univision/UniMás), WGCL-TV 46 (CBS) and WUPA 69 (The CW). * During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies. In 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. The region surrounding Atlanta was the location of several major army battles, culminating with the Battle of Atlanta and a four-month-long siege of the city by the Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman. On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood made the decision to retreat from Atlanta, and he ordered the destruction of all public buildings and possible assets that could be of use to the Union Army. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, and on September 7, Sherman ordered the city's civilian population to evacuate. On November 11, 1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Army's March to the Sea by ordering the destruction of Atlanta's remaining military assets. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt. Due to the city's superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgia's largest city. Beginning in the 1880s, Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, promoted Atlanta to potential investors as a city of the "New South" that would be based upon a modern economy and less reliant on agriculture. By 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology (now Georgia Tech) and the Atlanta University Center had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, which attracted nearly 800,000 attendees and successfully promoted the New South's development to the world. * Atlanta has plenty of amenities to offer. It is home to the North Georgia Battle Academy, in addition to the Georgia Aquarium, plenty of recreational and sports activities, is an extremely popular contest and showcase city, has hosted the state Pokemon league multiple times, a zoo, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Fulton County Airport, Atlanta History Center, Six Flags Over Georgia which is across the Chattahoochee River in Cobb County, Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood, State Farm Arena, Georgia World Congress Center, World of Coca-Cola, and a lot more. * Atlanta is nationwide infamous for its traffic jams, Interstate 285 as a whole in particular, and the infamous Downtown Connector as well. * The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) provides public transportation in the form of buses, heavy rail, and a downtown light rail loop. Notwithstanding heavy automotive usage in Atlanta, the city's subway system is the eighth busiest in the country. MARTA rail lines connect key destinations, such as the airport, Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, and Perimeter Center. However, significant destinations, such as Emory University and Cumberland, remain unserved. As a result, a 2011 Brookings Institution study placed Atlanta 91st of 100 metro areas for transit accessibility. Emory University operates its Cliff shuttle buses with 200,000 boardings per month, while private minibuses supply Buford Highway. Amtrak, the national rail passenger system, provides service to Atlanta via the Crescent train (New York–New Orleans), which stops at Peachtree Station. In 2014, the Atlanta Streetcar opened to the public. The streetcar's line, which is also known as the Downtown Loop, runs 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometres) around the downtown tourist areas of Peachtree Center, Centennial Olympic Park, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, and Sweet Auburn. The Atlanta Streetcar line is also being expanded on in the coming years to include a wider range of Atlanta's neighborhoods and important places of interest, with a total of over 50 miles (80 kilometres) of track in the plan. * Cycling is a growing mode of transportation in Atlanta, more than doubling since 2009, when it comprised 1.1% of all commutes (up from 0.3% in 2000). Although Atlanta's lack of bike lanes and hilly topography may deter many residents from cycling, the city's transportation plan calls for the construction of 226 miles (364 kilometres) of bike lanes by 2020, with the BeltLine helping to achieve this goal. In 2012, Atlanta's first "bike track" was constructed on 10th Street in Midtown. The two lane bike track runs from Monroe Drive west to Charles Allen Drive, with connections to the Beltline and Piedmont Park. Starting in June 2016, Atlanta received a bike sharing program, known as Relay Bike Share, with 100 bikes in Downtown and Midtown, which expanded to 500 bikes at 65 stations as of April 2017. * Atlanta is the birthplace of Brenda Lee, CeeLo Green, and numerous rappers. It is also the birthplace of Spike Lee, Matt Hullum, Cam Newton, Lester Maddox and Michelle Nunn. * During the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership. While minimal compared to other cities, Atlanta was not free of racial strife. In 1961, the city attempted to thwart blockbusting by erecting road barriers in Cascade Heights, countering the efforts of civic and business leaders to foster Atlanta as the "city too busy to hate". Desegregation of the public sphere came in stages, with public transportation desegregated by 1959, the restaurant at Rich's department store by 1961, movie theaters by 1963, and public schools by 1973. In the private sphere, The Westminster Schools desegregated in 1967. * Atlanta was selected as the site for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Following the announcement, the city government undertook several major construction projects to improve Atlanta's parks, sporting venues, and transportation infrastructure. While the games themselves were marred by numerous organizational inefficiencies as well as the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, the spectacle was a watershed event in Atlanta's history that initiated a fundamental transformation of the city in the following decade. * During the 2000s, Atlanta underwent a profound physical, cultural, and demographic transformation. Suburbanization, a booming economy, and new migrants decreased the city's black percentage from a high of 67% in 1990 to 54% in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, Atlanta gained 22,763 white residents, 5,142 Asian residents, and 3,095 Hispanic residents, while the city's black population decreased by 31,678. Much of the city's demographic change during the decade was driven by young, college-educated professionals: from 2000 to 2009, the three-mile radius surrounding Downtown Atlanta gained 9,722 residents aged 25 to 34 holding at least a four-year degree, an increase of 61%. Between the mid-1990s and 2010, stimulated by funding from the HOPE VI program, Atlanta demolished nearly all of its public housing, a total of 17,000 units and about 10% of all housing units in the city. * In 2005, the $2.8 billion BeltLine project was adopted, with the stated goals of converting a disused 22-mile freight railroad loop that surrounds the central city into an art-filled multi-use trail and increasing the city's park space by 40%. Atlanta's cultural offerings expanded during the 2000s: the High Museum of Art doubled in size; the Alliance Theatre won a Tony Award; and art galleries were established on the once-industrial Westside. The city of Atlanta was the subject of a massive cyberattack which began in March 2018. * Sylvia Whitehead, Atlanta's current Gym leader, is well-known for being a Darkrai worshipper, and opinions on her vary. Category:Georgia Cities